Sūrat Maryam
Section 4 of 17 · Surah Studies · Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
A Name Nobody Had Borne
Allah (swt) grants him a son, and a son of a particular kind — Yaḥyā (peace be upon him):
يَـٰزَكَرِيَّآ إِنَّا نُبَشِّرُكَ بِغُلَـٰمٍ ٱسْمُهُۥ يَحْيَىٰ لَمْ نَجْعَل لَّهُۥ مِن قَبْلُ سَمِيًّا
“(Allah said) “O Zakariyyā, We give you the good news of a boy whose name is YaHyā. We did not create any one before him of the same name.”” (19:7)
No one before him had borne that name. Yaḥyā means "he lives".
The name Yūsuf, likewise, carries the sense of yazīd, to increase. There is an account of a meeting in Rome, at the Vatican, with a priest there, a Lebanese Christian whose own name was Yūsuf. Told that his interlocutor's son bore the same name, he asked whether its meaning was known; the answer was that it was not, the name being Hebrew. He explained that it means yazīd, increase. Those who bear the name may take note of it.
Yaḥyā (peace be upon him) is the cousin of ʿĪsā (peace be upon him). Nor was the gift confined to the child himself: Allah made him righteous, made him an ʿābid, made him an ascetic, and made him a prophet. When Allah gives, even at such an age, He gives in full measure.